The other day, after the gardeners picked coconuts for us, they immediately left to go to work, taking the only cutlass with them. Shedroy, or Sheddy as everyone calls him, had stayed behind to do some cleanup work around our house. I asked him to open a couple of the coconuts for me, which at first he didn’t think he could do without a cutlass to whack off the tops. But he was able to knock them against a sharp corner of our stone wall to make a split big enough for the water to be poured out into a glass. The next day, as I had neither a cutlass nor a man to wield it, I tried Sheddy’s method - and it worked! And it was rather therapeutic, too, as I imagined all sorts of heads in place of those coconuts I was whapping against the stone… Quite proud of myself, I have been opening all my own coconuts ever since. Next up will be figuring out exactly which water nuts are at their peak to be picked. I will likely need a cutlass for that to cut them off the palm trees, but, Hey!, who needs men? As Snowy said yesterday, when I mentioned my newly discovered skill: “A lot of times, I think women are much smarter than men…”

Yes! And don’t you forget it!

I bought a handy-dandy avocado slicer from a downtown Toronto kitchen shop. It was beautifully packaged in its own presentation box. Linda talked me into it. She said no self-respecting Caribbean cook could live without an avocado slicer, and that Ann would likely be quite jealous when she saw it during her next trip through Bequia. I would have bought one for Ann as well, but we decided that space is at a premium on Receta so she’ll have to be satisfied with “borrowing” mine when she’s here. But, Linda, remember I said it might be a tad small for the avacados we usually grow on Bequia?

This particular avocado was big enough for four meals for two people… I had to take several swipes through it to slice it up completely.

But I must say, my new avocado slicer did do a fine job of slicing. I don’t know how I’ve managed without one all these years. And when I was buying this particular avocado from Doris yesterday, and told her of my new kitchen “toy,” she said not-to-worry; I’ll get lots of use out of it in the winter when our local avocados are out of season and we must make-do with the much-smaller imported variety.

Okay, we didn’t die from eating the Mango Pickle last night. We didn’t even suffer from any unpleasant after-effects. So that means the sitting-out-in-the-sun-for-three-days method of preparation didn’t result in a toxic mess. Unfortunately, the recipe called for far too much salt for our taste, almost to the point of overpowering the other spices. The pickle tasted good, but was just not the same or as good as the bought variety. But I don’t have to throw out the whole bottle since Dennis has given the stuff his thumbs-up and says he’ll eat more. The next time I make it though it will be with larger mangoes, maybe the Julie variety, and with less salt.

The rest of our curry dinner was excellent!

Yesterday the rain tree out front was in a promising, exuberant state of bloom, the flowers increasing in size and quantity throughout the day. And it didn’t disappoint as we finally received a huge amount of rain overnight and into the morning, complete with lightning! And just in the nick of time as it was getting rather dry around here again.

I’ve been trying to keep up with the green mangoes, and the ripe, that our tree continues to produce. I’ve made several recipes I discovered during a quick research trip on the internet, and for the most part they have proved to be delicious! Two exceptionally good recipes were Chicken in Green Mango and Fish Curry with Green Mango. I made several alterations to both, allowing for substitutions on a couple of ingredients that I couldn’t get here, and I will post the recipes to the right under What’s Cooking? when I finish making changes to them.

The other interesting recipe I tried making was Mango Pickle, my favourite condiment. I’ve been buying East Indian-produced jars of this stuff for years, and just the thought of it causes me to start salivating. If I could produce a reasonable facsimile at home, Wow!, would I be happy.

Since the mangoes were free for the picking, and the rest of the ingredients were mainly spices and vegetable oil, this was not an expensive recipe to make. It was also easy enough to throw together, but then had to sit in the sun for three days, and be shaken several times a day. We tasted it at that point, after the three days, and at first it didn’t seem right, kind of tinny-tasting. “Uh-oh!” Dennis said and refused to act as guinea pig again. I stirred up the Pickle and sampled some from the bottom. It was closer to what it should have been, but was still “too young.” The good news was that neither of us dropped dead after that initial tasting. I had to add more oil to cover then let it sit, undisturbed for three more days. This was starting to feel more like a science experiment than cooking. What we have today looks like this:

I admit, this picture does not look all that appetizing…

But the fact that it’s ready to eat is a good excuse, nonetheless, to have a curry dinner tonight and give this Mango Pickle a proper taste test. I’m going to make a Mango Chutney today as well. That’s cooked on the stove, not by the sun, so there will be less chance of poisoning ourselves with it. And if the Pickle turns out to be not-at-all palatable then I’ll throw it out and stick to buying the bottled variety. At least the main ingredient was free and other than the time I spent moving the jar back and forth as the sunny patches diminished, it didn’t take that much effort to make.

Snowy suggested that different mangoes will give an entirely different flavour to my recipes. It’s true that these growing in our garden are not the best available on Bequia. So if the taste of the pickle is off, I’m hoping that it might just be due to this type of mango.

It’s amazing the things I can get up to when I’m supposed to be writing… like today, for instance, when I decided it was time to experiment with English Muffin recipes, attempting to recreate the very same delicious Orowheats we bought and enjoyed when we lived in Calgary. And, I’m very pleased to report that I was successful! Here are some pictures to prove it:

First, you make the dough, let it rise, cut it into 3-1/2″ rounds, and fry them in a dry cast iron pan (I used our Paella pan because I could fit all 16 muffins in at one time) scattered with cornmeal…

Turn over…
and remove to a rack when brown. Allow to cool…

Split with a fork (notice how perfect these are! Sorry, I’m bragging…)

Then toast, slather with butter and raspberry jam, and enjoy with cappuccino!

That was my brilliant morning! Now to get back to that writing, but there are still 15 muffins left…

Coincidentally, with Ann Vanderhoof’s arrival on Bequia, our mango tree has suddenly become over-productive and we have mangoes, in various stages of ripeness, everywhere, including squashed and/or half-eaten on the driveway and road below. Here are some, still on the tree:

I’m blending up the ripe ones every day in smoothies, have created a wonderful mango sauce for ladling over gingerbread (see What’s Cooking? for photo), and am thinking up a way of layering them with brie and pepper jelly to be served with cracker bread on board Receta this afternoon. We’ve been invited out to the boat for sunset drinks. The other day I researched recipes for green mangoes on the internet and came up with the following that I either want to try or work with to concoct my own versions:
Mango Pickle
Mango-Green Tea Sorbet
Fish Curry with Green Mango
Lime and Chili Prawn and Green Mango Salad
Thai Green Mango Salad
Chicken in Green Mango
Curry and Mango Soup
and
Green Mango Chutney

So we have some tasty work ahead of us at The View. Anyone want to volunteer to be a recipe tester?

Everyone’s favourite, once they find out what these are… And the food enclyclopaedia website, Practically Edible, explains everything you need to know about them, as well as how to make them, and why they’re called “Nanaimo” (na-ny-mo). My favourite version has always been the recipe in the David Wood Food Book (as it turns out, identical to that given on PE’s website) although lately I’ve been using Bird’s Custard Powder instead of the vanilla pudding powder called for in the original recipe. Bird’s gives the centre more of a yellow colour.

Time to make some Nanaimo Bars! Thanks for the reminder, Randal!

We invited Pammy Cantina to join us for brunch on her day off from the restaurant. She offered to bring the beverages and we decided that 9:30 a.m. was a little early for Primo Margaritas so we opted for something that could be considered more of a breakfast drink because it included orange juice. She arrived carrying two bottles of…

… Dr. Tommy’s Painkiller, sufficient for the five of us.

So, what to serve? We went with pancakes (Canadian Maple Syrup, of course) and Mountain Breakfast. Check What’s Cooking? for the recipe. Pammy Cantina enjoyed it, as did the rest of us. An excellent brunch, if I do say so myself!